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Writing a book…

I’ve always thought it would be interesting to write a book. Not fun, exactly, but interesting. I would write a book that analyzes another book. And everyone would shake their heads about a book analyzing another book. Then they would read my book and give it a five-star review on Amazon.

I would analyze the Wizard of Oz books. Those books are weird. I read all of them. In one week. I nearly went crazy. There are 15 Oz books.

And lots of characters in varying degrees of weirdness. Watching the movie will give you no idea of what it’s really like in Oz.

In Oz, you cannot die. Unfortunately you can be cut into lots of little pieces and scattered all over, or maybe dropped into the bottom of a very deep well. Which would be quite unpleasant indeed.

In Oz, when they are about to be attacked and turned into slaves there’s nothing that they can do about it, the obvious best thing to do is be merry in spite of all your problems.

A single first edition Oz book, on ebay, can be up to 500 dollars. And a complete first edition set signed, ready, you’re not ready, 120,000 dollars. One hundred and twenty thousand dollars! Yikes.

And here is Frank L. Baum, he was an interesting character.

And very thoughtful, apparently. When he wrote the first Oz book, he didn’t intend to write the full series. He thought of another book to write. But Dot and Tot in Merryland wasn’t as popular as he expected it to be.

Baum was profoundly racist, it’s quite obvious in some of his book, and mainly in his poetry.

When Baum wrote the Oz books, he wanted to eliminate violence and moral lessons. He most certainly eliminated the morals. There is still a fair amount of violence.

Baum was a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement, he put into his books a scene where an army of girls takes over the emerald city, but then they all get scared away by a mouse. Really supportive there, Baum.

This is a map of Oz.

Look in the very top right corner. Look at the little directions key.

Do you see it? East and West are switched around. Which is just weird.

It’s my guess that Baum made up the story of Oz as he went along. He took suggestions from people who read the books.

Wouldn’t the Oz books be interesting to read about in a different book?!?! Would you give it five stars on Amazon?!?!